You are invited to participate in today's Day of Dialogue, "Constructive Responses to 9/11: Confronting our Fears, Working Together, Moving Ahead," a community dialogue commemorating the 5th Anniversary of 9/11.

Days of Dialogue is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to be a catalyst in the community problem solving process by creating dialogue on sensitive social issues among diverse community groups. By facilitating respectful, purposeful conversation on a broad range of public issues and public policies and topics, it fosters understanding, and encourage people to improve their quality of life through civic engagement.

Days of Dialogue works with various host organizations to design and conduct facilitated dialogues on often-sensitive or contentious copics of interest to the organization or community. Today's event is convened by Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas, Chair, Days of Dialogue.

* This event is out of area but sounds like a goodie for those who love old houses and the arts.

The Hispanic Outreach Taskforce (HOT) will showcase the work of some of the leading Latino artists in the country at the 2nd Annual "Arte y Musica Festival" at the historic Clarke Estate, designed by architect Irving Gill.

The reception, which helps to mark National Hispanic Heritage Month, will also feature a performance by the Latin Groove Quartet, hors d'oeuvres, wine and beer, and good company. The work of leading Latino artists, including Wayne Healy, Pola Lopez, Heriberto Luna, David Flury and Ivy Gomez, will be exhibited at the event.

The Clarke Estate was built as the home of Chauncey and Marie Rankin Clarke in 1919. A wealthy, socially prominent couple, they hired architect Irving Gill to build their country home on 60 acres of citrus groves in Santa Fe Springs. Using the feeling of Mediterranean and Mission Revival architecture, he designed this house without ornamentation. The 8,000-square-foot home is constructed of poured-in-place reinforced concrete. The home is built around a central courtyard edged with Tuscan-style columns and graceful arches. In recent decades, many of Gill's buildings in Southern California have been destroyed, and this estate may be the best intact example of his work in existence.

Born in 1858, Chauncey Clarke inherited a distillery fortune, and increased in many-fold by investing in gold mines, desert land, citrus groves, date farms and purebred Arabian horses -- before discovering oil in Santa Fe Springs. His wife, Marie Rankin Clarke, excelled in "masculine" pursuits (she was described by a friend thusly: "She could ride a horse with as much grace, and shoot as accurately, Annie Oakley.") At this estate the couple entertained their many friends by showing movies in the courtyard (the screen was rolled down from an upstairs balcony and the projector sat on another balcony especially designed for this purpose.)

Mrs. Clarke made an important contribution to the arts. She acquired land for the construction of the Hollywood Bowl and oversaw its establishment.

Admission: $25. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the artwork and artifacts will be contributed to the HOT Scholarship Fund to help local high school seniors pursue a college education. To RSVP, contact HOT at (562) 789-0550 or send your reservation check to HOT at 9200 Colima Rd., #104, Whittier, CA 90605. You may also pay at the door -- but please do at least phone in your reservation.

3). REMINDER: COMMUNITY MEETING ON THE REUSE OF ENGINE HOUSE NO. 18 Tuesday, September 12 6 to 8 p.m. Fame Renaisance, 1668 West Adams Blvd. (one block east of Western)

It's time for a status report on the upcoming issuance Request for Proposal (RFP) on the re-use of the landmark Mission style firehouse, Engine Company No. 18, as either residential or community use. Come learn about the process and discuss the issues with CRA staff. For additional information, call 213-977-1727.

4). WAHA COOKS Submission deadline: September 15

Yes, we do! WAHA is celebrating the 20th anniversary of our annual Holiday Historic Homes Tour and Progressive Dinner (more info later, but hold the dates of December 2 and 3) this year, and we decided to cook up something special. In honor of two decades of special Holiday Tour recipes, WAHA is creating its first culinary collection, which will include selections of our favorites from over the years.

In addition, WAHA members are invited to submit their personal family holiday favorites to the collection. We are looking for seasonal dishes -- a mouth-watering savory you serve your holiday guests? A delicious winter soup? A heavenly holiday dessert? A family favorite that shows up on the table each holiday season?

Instructions: Recipes need to be submitted in a Word.doc format or simple text, and delivered digitally via e-mail. No PDFs, jpegs, tiffs or desktop publishing software, please. Provide a recipe title and a brief (no more than 100 words) introduction about how this particular dish relates to your own family's holiday traditions. List all the ingredients in the order given, then give directions in standard recipe format. Please be careful with fractions -- write them out (ie: one-half). If using cans or packages, indicate the weight in pounds or ounces. Very important: Read your recipe carefully and make sure every step is present and correct. Double check your ingredient amounts. WAHA will not necessarily be test-cooking your recipe.

Submit your recipe(s) to WAHAcooks@aol.com no later than Friday, September 15. You may submit up to three recipes.

Thank you, and let's get cookin'.

5). WESTERN HEIGHTS NEIGHBORHOOD YARD & ESTATE SALE Saturday, September 16 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Western Heights, 20th and 21st Streets between Western and Arlington (enter from Gramercy - the neighborhood now has gates on either end)

Western Heights is sponsoring a neighborhood-wide garage sale. Their toss-offs may be your treasures! For more information, contact Brian Jett, at bjett@mac.com.

United Neighborhoods Neighborhood Council (UNNC) has invited CHAMP to tell us about their program, whose focus is free training to empower property owners and community members with techniques that promote responsible ownership, reduce crime, and improve quality of life. This program is provided by LAPD's Community Problems Unit (CPU), which is responsible for resolving ongoing nuisances when traditional means of enforcement have failed. The goal of CPU is to work together with the owners or agents of the property to fix the problem. When the Police and the owners/agents work together to formulate and implement suggested improvements, they can be effective. Nuisance and crime can usually be resolved by making operational improvements such as: improved upkeep, adequate lighting, access and egress control, hours of operation, identification of patrons, signage, fences, and other actions that reduce the attractiveness to criminals.

This meeting is presented by UNNC's Economic Development Committee, which meets on a standing basis on the third Monday of each month. Community stakeholders are invited to join this committee. All UNNC events posted at www.unnc.org.

8). LIVING HISTORY TOUR 2006 AT ANGELUS ROSEDALE CEMETERY Saturday, September 30

The Angelus Rosedale Cemetery, one of the City's oldest, most historically significant cemeteries, was founded in 1884, and is now home to many generations of Los Angeles' early citizens, representing every race, faith and creed. Every year, WAHA focuses on some of their life stories by presenting a Living History Tour at Angelus Rosedale Cemetery, featuring actor portrayals, graveside, of some of the individuals buried at the cemetery.

This year, you will have the opportunity to meet: *Jonathan Trumbull Warner, an early California rancher * Laurence Prudhont, a wireless operator and shipwreck victim * John James Neimore, publisher of The Eagle newspaper * A. Churchill Harvey Elder, a victim of the L.A. Times bombing * Louise Peete, a serial murderess

We are still looking for a few volunteers. If you wish to be of service, please call Suzanne Cooper at 323-766-0576.

If you plan to take the tour, it does sell out, so please do purchase your tickets as soon as possible. Also, please note: This is an outdoor 3 Â½ hour walking tour over uneven terrain. Do wear appropriate clothing, and walking shoes.

We welcome your contributions to the WAHA E-News and West Adams Heritage Association's monthly publication, "West Adams Matters." Please understand that we do have deadlines. Material for the print newsletter should be submitted no later than the 1st of the prior month (i.e.: April 1 for the May issue). If your event is scheduled for early in a month, we suggest you request coverage for the prior month (i.e.: May issue for a June 3 event), because it's entirely possible that not all of our members will have received their newsletter by then (we do try hardâ€¦). We reserve the right to edit submitted material. For the WAHA E-News, we prefer to only send it out once or twice a month, circa the 5th and the 20th. Please don't wait until two days before an event to let us know about it. It may not be sent out. EXCEPTION: If you suddenly hear of an important city hearing or other public meeting that is important to West Adams, we will endeavor to send out a special bulletin. Submit your material to Laura Meyers, editor, lauramink@aol.com